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Minnesota Timberwolves president and coach Flip Saunders died Sunday, the team announced. Saunders, 60, had been battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
“It is with extreme sadness that the Minnesota Timberwolves today learned that Phil “Flip” Saunders, who served as the team’s President of Basketball Operations and Head Coach, in addition to being a minority owner of the team, has passed away at age 60.”
Saunders coached the Timberwolves from 1995 to 2005, then spent three seasons with the Detroit Pistons and three with the Washington Wizards. He returned to Minnesota as team president in 2013, and named himself the coach of the team in 2014 after Rick Adelman retired. Saunders’ career coaching record is 654-592.
“The NBA family is mourning today over the tragic loss of our friend and colleague, Flip Saunders,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “With more than 40 years around the game, 20 of them in the NBA, Flip’s untimely passing has left a gaping hole in the fabric of our league. Flip was a beloved figure around the NBA, nowhere more so than in Minnesota, demonstrating a genuine and consistent passion for his players, his team and the game. On behalf of the NBA, we offer our most sincere condolences to Flip’s wife, Debbie, their four children and the entire organization.”
“It is with tremendous difficulty and deep sadness that the Timberwolves acknowledge the passing of our President of Basketball Operations and Head Coach, Flip Saunders,” Minnesota owner Glen Taylor said in a statement. “Flip was a symbol of strength, compassion, and dignity for our organization. He was a shining example of what a true leader should be, defined by his integrity and kindness to all he encountered. Today is not a day to reflect on Flip’s accomplishments in basketball or what he brought to us as an organization on the court, but rather to indicate what he meant to us as a co-worker, friend, member of the community and the basketball world at large. We as an organization are devastated by his passing, and our hearts and prayers go out to Debbie and the entire Saunders family as they endure this extraordinary loss.”
In August, the Wolves announced that Saunders was undergoing chemotherapy and had been diagnosed with cancer eight weeks earlier. Sam Mitchell has taken over as interim head coach.
Saunders will be remembered as a basketball junkie — he started out as the coach of Golden Valley Lutheran College in 1977 and didn’t get his first NBA job until 1995 in Minnesota. In between, he was an assistant at Tulsa and the University of Minnesota, and he spent seven seasons as a head coach in the CBA. In the NBA, he was known as an offensive tactician and one of the first to utilize zone defense in the early 2000s.